Louis-Ferdinand Céline's influence on North American writers makes for a fascinating case study in literary influence. Is Céline a "strong poet" whose anxiety of influence has been felt on this side of the Atlantic for several generations, resulting in many of our best writers being "misprisioned" via the Freudian dynamics of Harold Bloom's theory of literary progeniture? Do Céline's populist sympathies for the poor and the sick and the outcast account for at least part of his attraction? ... read more
